Buying A Foreclosed Home

I'm having an insomnia night tonight, and that really sucks. I've got a full day planned with a ton of stuff to do today, but it's already 5:12am. I haven't slept at all.

I'm supposed to go with my sister-in-law this morning to look at a couple foreclosure listings, but I might have to back out. She's been trying to find a house in her price range for months without any luck. A friend mentioned a couple houses she knows about that are in foreclosure, so we thought maybe that's the route she should take.

There are also a ton of listings online. I've noticed with most of the foreclosed home websites, you have to sign up to see the actual details of the listing like information on the condition of the house and photos, but they give you the address as part of the free information. I made a list of all the homes I found in our area, and if she doesn't like either of these we're going to drive by these I've found. If she likes the look of them, then I can get more information on what bank the foreclosure is through.

She has to be careful though. Foreclosed homes are great buys if you can find a good one, but sometimes you can get stuck with a bigger problem than it's worth. The homes are sold by the bank that foreclosed on them, so they're all sold as-is. It's also harder to convince a bank to haggle on the price because they believe you're already getting a deal. In most cases you are if the house is in good condition.

We'll just have to see how it goes tomorrow. If I can make myself go to sleep in the next hour then I'll just ask her to wait until later in the day to look at these properties. I don't want to sleep all day, but I do need to grab a little sleep. My body feels dead tired. It's my mind that's wide awake.